This invention herein described was made in the course of or under a contract or subcontract thereunder with the Department of the Navy.
The invention relates generally to seals for air cushion vehicles and more specifically to a stern seal for a plenum chamber of a surface effect ship.
Various seals for plenum-chambers have hereinbefore been known that provide a degree of success but have not been found to be entirely satisfactory. Some of these prior seals are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,870,121, 3,416,627, 3,387,685, 3,244,244 and 3,258,080. In general, these devices have an elastomeric interface with the water surface, seal pressure must be greater than the cushion pressure for stability and the recovery force at high immersions would require a pressure ratio greater than 1.